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Multimedia Web Design and Development Using
Languages to Build Dynamic Web Pages 1st Edition
Theodor Richardson Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Theodor Richardson; Charles Thies
ISBN(s): 9781937585006, 193758500X
Edition: 1
File Details: PDF, 8.25 MB
Year: 2012
Language: english
MULTIMEDIA WEB DESIGN
AND DEVELOPMENT
LICENSE, DISCLAIMER OF LIABILITY, AND LIMITED WARRANTY

By purchasing or using this book (the “Work”), you agree that this license grants
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the Publisher. Duplication or dissemination of any text, code, simulations, images,
etc. contained herein is limited to and subject to licensing terms for the respective
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the purchaser of this product.
MULTIMEDIA WEB DESIGN
AND DEVELOPMENT
Using Languages to
Build Dynamic Web Pages

Theodor Richardson
Charles Thies

Mercury Learning and Information

Dulles, Virginia
Boston, Massachusetts
New Delhi
Copyright ©2013 by MERCURY LEARNING AND INFORMATION. All rights reserved.

This publication, portions of it, or any accompanying software may not be

reproduced in any way, stored in a retrieval system of any type, or
transmitted by any means, media, electronic display or mechanical display,
including, but not limited to, photocopy, recording, Internet postings, or
scanning, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Publisher: David Pallai

MERCURY LEARNING AND INFORMATION

22841 Quicksilver Drive
Dulles, VA 20166
[email protected]
www.merclearning.com
1-800-758-3756

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Theodor Richardson and Charles Thies. Multimedia Web Design and Development.
ISBN: 978-1-936420-38-4

The publisher recognizes and respects all marks used by companies, manu-
facturers, and developers as a means to distinguish their products.
All brand names and product names mentioned in this book are
trademarks or service marks of their respective companies. Any omission
or misuse (of any kind) of service marks or trademarks, etc. is not an
attempt to infringe on the property of others.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012952664

131415 321

Printed in the United States of America

Our titles are available for adoption, license, or bulk purchase by

institutions, corporations, etc. For additional information, please contact
the Customer Service Dept. at 1-800-758-3756 (toll free).

The sole obligation of MERCURY LEARNING AND INFORMATION to the purchaser

is to replace the disc, based on defective materials or faulty workmanship,
but not based on the operation or functionality of the product.
 I dedicate this book to Katherine; she is my muse and the love
of my life. I would be lost without you, and everything in my life
means more because you are in it.

— Theodor Richardson

To my sons, Matt and Will: Dream the impossible, learn from

your mistakes, and try again. Hard work and perseverance will
make all your dreams come true.

—Charles Thies
CONTENTS
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii

Chapter 1
WEB DESIGN BASICS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.1 Introduction to the World Wide Web ......................................... 1

1.1.1 Web Pages and Web Browsers ..................................... 4
1.1.2 Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) ...................... 6
1.1.3 Uniform Resource Locator (URL)............................... 8
1.2 HTML Page Construction ......................................................... 10
1.2.1 The Doctype Declaration ...........................................12
1.2.2 Adding a Title .............................................................14
1.2.3 Adding Content ..........................................................15
1.2.4 Adding a Hyperlink....................................................15
1.2.5 Page Testing ...............................................................17
1.3 Principles of Web Design........................................................... 18
1.3.1 Page Layout and Real Estate ....................................19
1.3.2 Purpose and Audience Consideration .......................21
1.3.3 Typography and Font Selection ................................22
1.3.4 Color Choice................................................................25
1.3.5 Evaluating Existing Design for Tone ........................27
Chapter Summary .....................................................................28
Chapter Knowledge Check........................................................28
Chapter Projects ........................................................................30
Chapter Exercises .....................................................................31
Chapter Review Questions........................................................33

Chapter 2
SITE PLANNING AND PRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

2.1 Web Site Planning ..................................................................... 36

2.1.1 The Design and Development Process ......................36
2.1.2 Initial Client Communication ...................................38
2.1.3 Establishing Audience and Purpose .........................40
2.1.4 Emphasizing and Showcasing Content ....................41
2.1.5 Creating a Design Set ................................................42
2.2 The Case Project......................................................................... 45

Contents — vii
 2.3Professional HTML Authoring Tools ....................................... 45
2.3.1 Adobe Dreamweaver ..................................................46
2.3.2 Microsoft Expression Web .........................................48
2.3.3 Notepad++ ..................................................................49
Chapter Summary .....................................................................51
Chapter Knowledge Check........................................................51
Chapter Projects ........................................................................53
Chapter Exercises .....................................................................54
Chapter Review Questions........................................................55

Chapter 3
INTRODUCTION TO HTML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

3.1 Creating an Initial Site Layout ................................................ 57

3.1.1 Decomposing a Design ...............................................58
3.1.2 Structuring a Page .....................................................60
3.1.3 Creating Layouts in HTML .......................................60
3.2 Images ......................................................................................... 63
3.2.1 Image Formats ...........................................................63
3.2.2 Image Creation Software ...........................................65
3.2.3 Creating Site Images .................................................67
3.2.4 Inserting Images ........................................................70
Chapter Summary .....................................................................73
Chapter Knowledge Check........................................................73
Chapter Projects ........................................................................75
Chapter Exercises .....................................................................75
Chapter Review Questions........................................................77

Chapter 4
CSS3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
4.1 Introduction to Cascading Style Sheets ............................79
4.1.1 Invoking Styles in HTML ..........................................80
4.1.2 CSS Classes and Tags ................................................81
4.1.3 CSS IDs.......................................................................82
4.1.4 Pseudo-classes ............................................................83
4.1.5 Inheritance .................................................................84
4.2 Positioning and Layering ...................................................84
4.2.1 Element Position ........................................................85
4.2.2 Layers .........................................................................89
4.2.3 Height and Width.......................................................91
4.2.4 Margins and Padding.................................................94
4.3 Display Properties...................................................................... 97
4.3.1 Background Images ...................................................97

viii — Contents
 Colors ..........................................................................99
4.3.2
Borders ..................................................................... 103
4.3.3
Shadows .................................................................... 104
4.3.4
Content Alignment................................................... 105
4.3.5
Text Modification ..................................................... 106
4.3.6
4.4 Reusing CSS Styles.................................................................. 108
Chapter Summary ................................................................... 110
Chapter Knowledge Check ..................................................... 116
Chapter Projects ..................................................................... 118
Chapter Exercises ................................................................... 118
Chapter Review Questions...................................................... 120
Chapter 5
HTML5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
5.1 Branding a Site ................................................................. 124
5.1.1 Planning for Content ............................................... 124
5.1.2 Creating a Site Map ................................................. 125
5.1.3 Hyperlinks ................................................................ 126
5.1.4 Image Links/Hotspots .............................................. 127
5.1.5 Meta Tags ................................................................. 130
5.1.6 Cloning Pages ........................................................... 131
5.1.7 Adding a Site Icon .................................................... 133
5.2 Adding Content ................................................................. 135
5.2.1 Using Paragraphs and Line Breaks ........................ 135
5.2.2 Ampersand Commands ............................................ 136
5.2.3 Adding Tables........................................................... 137
5.2.4 Adding Forms ........................................................... 141
5.2.5 Audio and Video ....................................................... 145
5.2.6 Embedded Code ........................................................ 146
Chapter Summary ................................................................... 148
Chapter Knowledge Check ..................................................... 148
Chapter Projects ...................................................................... 150
Chapter Exercises ................................................................... 151
Chapter Review Questions...................................................... 152

Chapter 6
JAVASCRIPT AND JQUERY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
6.1 JavaScript Basics ........................................................................ 155
6.1.1 Variable Declarations .............................................. 158
6.1.2 Assigning Values ...................................................... 159
6.1.3 Function Calls .......................................................... 161
6.1.4 Defining Functions................................................... 163
6.1.5 Conditional Statements ........................................... 165

Contents — ix
 Looping ..................................................................... 168
6.1.6
6.2 Using JavaScript ...................................................................... 170
6.2.1 Using the alert() Function ....................................... 171
6.2.2 String Parsing and Form Validation ...................... 171
6.2.3 Dynamic Content ..................................................... 179
6.2.4 Events ....................................................................... 182
6.2.5 External JavaScript ................................................. 184
6.3 jQuery ........................................................................................ 185
6.3.1 Installing jQuery ...................................................... 186
6.3.2 jQuery Code and Use ............................................... 187
Chapter Summary .................................................................. 190
Chapter Knowledge Check...................................................... 190
Chapter Projects ...................................................................... 192
Chapter Exercises ................................................................... 193
Chapter Review Questions...................................................... 194

Chapter 7
PHP AND PERL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
7.1 Hosting a Web Site .................................................................. 197
7.2 PHP............................................................................................ 201
7.2.1 PHP Basics ............................................................... 202
7.2.2 Form Processing ....................................................... 204
7.2.3 Emailing with PHP .................................................. 208
7.3 Perl .................................................................................... 210
7.3.1 Perl Basics .................................................................. 211
7.3.2 Form Processing ......................................................... 212
7.3.3 Emailing with Perl ..................................................... 216
Chapter Summary ................................................................... 219
Chapter Knowledge Check...................................................... 219
Chapter Projects ...................................................................... 221
Chapter Exercises ................................................................... 222
Chapter Review Questions...................................................... 223

Chapter 8
MYSQL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
8.1 MySQL ...................................................................................... 227
8.1.1 MySQL Data Types .................................................. 228
8.1.2 Creating a MySQL Database .................................. 230
8.2 Structured Query Language (SQL)........................................ 234
8.2.1 Select Queries........................................................... 234

x — Contents
 Update Queries ........................................................ 235
8.2.2
Insert Queries .......................................................... 236
8.2.3
8.3 Using MySQL with PHP ......................................................... 236
8.3.1 Accessing a MySQL Database with PHP................ 237
8.3.2 Storing Data in a MySQL Database ....................... 239
8.3.3 Retrieving Data from a MySQL Database.............. 240
Chapter Summary ................................................................... 243
Chapter Knowledge Check...................................................... 243
Chapter Projects ...................................................................... 245
Chapter Exercises ................................................................... 246
Chapter Review Questions...................................................... 247

Appendix
SELECTED ANSWERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Contents — xi
Introduction
This book is a complete guide to the concepts and practices of Web
design and development. It includes hands-on activities and profes-
sional advice for best practices in learning the procedures and prac-
tices of both design and development, allowing you to practice the
entire life cycle of a Web project. The material herein captures all of
the stages, from initial designs to back-end programming, of creating
complex Web applications. After completing this text, you will have
the ability to create dynamic, engaging Web sites with interactive
components and persistent styles. Each topic provides all of the neces-
sary instruction for getting started in that particular area.
The first five chapters of the book focus on the front-end design of a
Web site. This includes the use of HTML5 and CSS3 to create profes-
sional Web pages. This also includes guidelines for graphic design to
make the most of your pages using color, font, and style. The profes-
sional tools Adobe Dreamweaver and Microsoft Expression Web are
also introduced, with guidelines for their use in creating the case proj-
ect that continues throughout the text.
Chapter 6 focuses on the use of JavaScript for creating dynamic
elements and enabling interactions with the user. This also serves
as an introduction to the common syntax for conditional statements,
variable declarations, looping, and branching. This chapter completes
the front-end development of the Web site and transitions into con-
siderations for back-end Web application development. The jQuery
library of functions for creating complex JavaScript effects across
browsers is also introduced in this chapter, including instructions on
installing the library to a site, linking it to a page, and implementing
its functionality.
Chapter 7 introduces both PHP and Perl for developing back-end
code for Web applications. It gives an overview of both programming
languages, with the goal of focusing on common tasks needed for inter-
activity and processing user input through forms or JavaScript sub-
 missions. This chapter includes instructions for emailing from both of
these server-side languages. In order to complete the activities for this
chapter, you will need Web hosting that supports one or both of them.
Ideally, the hosting solution you choose will also support MySQL for
completing the case project in its entirety. GoDaddy.com basic hosting
is recommended for this project, as it meets all of these criteria at a
relatively low cost.
Chapter 8 introduces MySQL, the most commonly used open
source database software, for data management and storage. This
includes an introduction to databases and the SQL database language.
The PHP toolkit is used for accessing, storing, and modifying data for
use in a Web application. The case project is completed in this chapter
with the storage and retrieval of information from the interactive form
developed for the site.

Chapter Structure
Each chapter is structured so as to provide you with an overview
and best practices for one component of creating a complete Web site
from the front-end design to the back-end programming. The chapters
contain hands-on activities both in the text and as standalone chal-
lenges to help you master the material. A case project is given as an
example for you to follow and expand on. Two additional projects are
presented to reinforce the material and allow you to practice it with
different objectives. A knowledge check is provided to allow you to test
your comprehension of the chapter. Answers to select odd-numbered
questions are provided at the back of the book. Additional exercises
and discussion questions are presented to help you further explore the
concepts in each chapter.

Code Notation
Some lines of code are longer than the lines of text in this book.
Whenever you see a  symbol in the code, the line immediately follow-
ing it is a continuation that should be on the same line in your actual
code. In HTML this is not important but in formal languages it is

x i v — Introduction
necessary to keep all of the code on the same line. The code snippets
on the companion DVD contain the code in the correct lines for use.
Student Resource DVD
The textbook provides a DVD inside the back cover that includes
resources and sample video tutorials for the student. This DVD
includes all of the files needed to complete the chapter exercises within
the text. You will also find a repository of high-resolution images from
the chapters and companion Excel template documents for using com-
mon functions effectively. There are also student resources with addi-
tional project samples and videos for each chapter, as well as video
tutorials, on the companion Web site for the book(authorcloudware.
com).

Instructor Resource DVD

The instructor DVD contains the solutions for all of the exercises
and knowledge checks, along with PowerPoint presentations for each
chapter (authorcloudware.com).

Introduction — x v
Acknowledgments
Theodor Richardson:
I am very proud of the book that you now hold in your hands, and
I want to thank you for choosing it over others. Web design has been
a passion of mine and a profession for decades now, and I am pleased
to share what I have learned with you. This book is the result of the
combined creative forces of everyone who has worked to make it pos-
sible, and I want to offer my sincere thanks to them all, whether we
have met or not. I want to thank Katie Kennedy for her continued sup-
port, patience, and understanding as well as for her unprecedented
ability to make café lattes instantly as needed. I also want to thank
my grandparents, Leonard and Sylvia Ullom, and my parents, Dan
and Deborah Richardson, for giving me such a wonderful upbringing
and perpetual support and for helping me to capitalize on the oppor-
tunities that have led to my lifelong dream of seeing a book of my own
creation in print. I would like to thank my publisher, David Pallai,
and my co-author and friend, Charles Thies, for seeing another project
through to completion. Last, and certainly not least, I want to thank
you, dear reader, for your support.

Charles Thies:
I certainly have many people to thank who have made this project
possible. We have been writing now for a couple of years, and I would
like to thank my beautiful wife, Lea, and my sons, Matt and Will, for
their patience and support throughout. I would like to extend a special
thank you to my friend and co-author, Ted, for all of his guidance and
support throughout the project. A very special thank you to all of the
people we know worked to make this textbook possible but we never
met. Finally, a very special thank you to the students and professors
who have adopted this book; you are the reason we are always think-
ing about new ways to present material in the best format so that you
will be prepared in your field of study.
 CHAPTER

1
Web Design Basics
I N T HI S CHAP T E R

This chapter presents an introduction to the basic concepts

of Web design. This includes an introduction to the World
Wide Web (WWW), including a brief history and an overview
of how resources can be interlinked via a Uniform Resource
Locator (URL). You will also start to practice creating and
opening HTML files, the basis of the interconnectivity of
the World Wide Web, and explore some preliminary designs
for the two core projects of the text, as well as principles
that you can use for your own projects later. Once you have
completed this chapter, you should be able to:
● D iscuss the history of the World Wide Web
● I dentify the components of a URL and
understand interlinking of Web documents
● C onstruct a new HTML document and open it
in a Web browser
● C reate a preliminary design for your Web site

1.1 INTRODUCTION TO THE

WORLD WIDE WEB
The Internet is a vast interconnection of networks that spans the
world and allows computers to communicate from any point on the
 globe to any other point on the globe that shares a connection to this
vast complex network. The Internet of today grew from an initial inter-
connection of United States government servers under a project called
ARPANET and has expanded across the globe. From the user perspec-
tive, the Internet is most recognizable from the services that it offers;
these services prominently include e-mail and the World Wide Web.

The Internet is a global interconnection of networks made up of

hardware devices, such as personal computers and servers, which supports
communication between different computing devices using an addressing
DEFINITION
scheme known as Internet Protocol (IP).
The World Wide Web (or Web) is a service that runs on the Internet to
provide access to documents, audio, and video and allows the interconnection
of these documents through the use of hyperlinks.

The World Wide Web (commonly abbreviated as “the Web”) is

a service that runs on the Internet to allow users with an Internet
connection to access publicly available documents that are shared by
organizations and individuals. It is the most common application on
the Internet and is most likely what people have in mind when they
think of the Internet.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Tim Berners-Lee, a physicist working as
a contractor at CERN (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nuclé-
aire, which translated from French means European Organization for
Nuclear Research), developed what is now known as the World Wide
Web through a variety of projects. Berners-Lee had a grand vision for
a system that could link information through a “web” of interconnec-
tions between documents across different computers.
These interconnections between resources were called hyperlinks
and acted as a way of managing and sharing information among
individual nodes, documents, and machines. The hyperlinked docu-

2 — Multimedia Web Design

ments contained text and hyperlinks and became known as hypertext
documents; this is the same as a Web page today, though they have
become much more sophisticated and have integrated a number of
other scripting and programming languages and technologies.
Tim Berners-Lee developed the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP),
which would essentially allow a user to click on one of these hyperlinks
to easily move from one hypertext document (or later, Web page) to
another using an interpreter program that is called a Web browser; the
early Web browser that he wrote was called WorldWideWeb.
This system allowed resources to be accessed by remote machines
that were interconnected via shared network protocols. Using the back-
bone of the Internet, HTTP and the resource access and hyperlinking it
enables have allowed the Web to expand into daily use on desktop com-
puters, servers, laptops, and mobile devices. Web pages are individual
documents that are stored on Web-enabled servers (or Web servers),
which contain hyperlinks to other Web pages, documents, and applica-
tions. A set of interrelated Web pages is called a Web site.
As the power of computers has grown, Web browsers have
expanded in capability from simple document retrieval and display to
media-rich interfaces that can act as robustly as a standalone appli-
cation installed on a computer. However, the core principles of this
system remain and will be the focus of this first chapter.

A Web site is a collection of Web pages, documents, audio, and video that
is stored in a location such as a Web server and can be accessed by a unique
address determined by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) value. DEFINITION

A Web server is a repository that contains all of the files and folders for
a Web site and provides remote access to them via various protocols such as
HTTP and File Transfer Protocol (FTP), over the Internet.
A Web browser is a software application used to search, navigate, and
retrieve information and data from the Web.

C h a pt e r 1 — We b D e s i g n B a s i c s — 3
 1.1.1 Web Pages and Web Browsers
A Web page is a document designed for interpretation in a spe-
cialized application called a Web browser. Modern Web pages have
evolved from the simple concept of linking text documents to each
other via hyperlinks to an interrelated set of scripting and program-
ming languages that operate to provide a complex display capable of
providing rich, media-driven experiences for a user. Web pages use
a base language called Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), which
provides a means of complex media display and delivery along with
simple text inclusion. The file type of a Web page is .htm or .html.
A Web browser is a user application that retrieves Web pages and
interprets them for display on a user’s machine. The Web browser dis-
play is known as a WYSIWYG display, for “What You See Is What
You Get”; each Web browser will interpret the HTML code differently,
so content may not display the same way on different browsers. There
are a variety of Web browsers available for use.

Because of the differences in display, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
has set standards of behavior and display for Web-based languages such as HTML
and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). You should bookmark www.w3c.org
on your most commonly used Web browser as a reference for usage whenever
you are in doubt about the behavior and application of a Web-based language
NOTE component.

The most common Web browsers in use today are Microsoft Inter-
net Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Apple Safari. The
global statistics on browser use (as determined by statowl.com) can be
seen in Figure 1.1. The use of the different browsers varies by region.
Internet Explorer is the primary browser used in North America,
whereas Google Chrome has the largest use in Asia. Mozilla Firefox
is the most used browser in Europe. Apple Safari has seen increased
usage in recent years because of its integration with the Apple iPad.

4 — Multimedia Web Design

At this point, it is safe
to assume that support-
ing Internet Explorer,
Mozilla Firefox, Google
Chrome, and Apple
Safari will allow your
site to reach nearly any
audience set you desire.
The four most com-
mon browsers can be
downloaded for free. It
is recommended that FIGURE 1.1 Global Browser Usage Statistics
you have at least three of
them installed on your computer for testing purposes as you begin to
design and develop more complex Web pages and applications. The
most common Web browsers can be downloaded from the following
sites:

ACTIVITY 1.1 – WEB BROWSER INSTALLATION AND

UPDATING
As you go further in the chapter, you will start to plan two course projects. ACTIVITY
You will need to test these on multiple Web browsers to ensure compatibility.
To prepare for this, you should make sure you have at least Internet Explorer
(www.microsoft.com) and Firefox (www.firefox.com) on a Win-
dows machine and Safari (www.apple.com/safari) and Firefox
(www.firefox.com) on a Mac OS machine. You can use the indicated
homepages for each of these software tools to download the respective software
or update the Web browsers you already have installed to the latest version.

• Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE): This browser is a Win-

dows OS–exclusive browser designed to integrate more fully
with the Windows desktop environment. IE contains ActiveX
technology, which can allow it to function in a more robust
manner and provide greater depth of content on Windows
machines; scripting for ActiveX requires separate consider-
ations from those of normal Web design and development for

C h a pt e r 1 — We b D e s i g n B a s i c s — 5
 general use. IE can be downloaded from the Microsoft
homepage at www.microsoft.com.
• Mozilla Firefox: This browser is compatible with the Win-
dows, Mac OS, and Linux operating systems, as well as some
mobile devices (as an app). It can be downloaded from the
homepage www.firefox.com.
• Google Chrome: Chrome is a browser that has recently
gained market share. It is compatible with multiple
operating systems and integrates with Google’s other online
services, such as Google Docs. It can be downloaded from
www.google.com/chrome.
• Apple Safari: Safari is the default browser for Mac OS and is
directly integrated with Apple iOS devices, including the iPad.
A version of Safari is also available for Windows. You can
download Safari from www.apple.com/safari.

One of the browsers you should seriously consider having on your computer for
testing is Mozilla Firefox. It includes a Web Developer tool (accessible directly
from the Firefox main menu), which will assist you in evaluating your HTML
PROFESSIONAL
TIP code, CSS commands, and JavaScript execution. If you are unsure why your
page is not working or displaying properly, opening it in Firefox and using the
Web Developer tools Web Console and Error Console can save you a significant
amount of time debugging your page or application.

1.1.2 Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)

A Web page is written in the language of the Web, Hypertext
Markup Language (HTML). HTML files are made up of text and
formatting commands called tags. The tags of HTML can be used to
format the text in the page and to establish page structure. Without
any tags, HTML pages act like continuous lines of text, breaking at
the boundaries of the Web browser window. (This is similar to their
behavior in text editors like Microsoft Word when no formatting is
applied). The HTML tags allow this flow to be changed and formatted
to create complex pages with clearly delineated visual elements.

6 — Multimedia Web Design

HTML 5 has deviated from strict adherence to SGML, but the tags and rules that
have carried over from prior versions of HTML (such as HTML 4.01) still operate
under SGML rules and constraints. This deviation in structure will be covered in
NOTE
later chapters, but you should concentrate on structured HTML to help you learn
good habits as you begin using the language.

HTML is a highly structured

language. Its rules and form are
defined by the structure of its par-
ent language, Standard Generalized
Markup Language (SGML). HTML
is a sister language to eXtensible
Markup Language (XML), which
is used for data transmission and
interoperability. This is the reason
for the commonality in tag format FIGURE 1.2 Hierarchy of Markup
Languages
between HTML and XML. You can
see this hierarchy visually in Figure 1.2.
The tags in HTML are signified by angle brackets (the less than and
greater than symbols) wrapping the name of the tag, such as <title> to
signify the title tag. You can view tags in HTML as on and off switches.
Anything that is turned on must be turned off. To turn off a tag, you
would use a slash before the name of the tag between the less than and
greater than symbols, such as </title> to signify the end of the title.
Any text included between the initialization tag and the end tag will be
formatted according to the behavior of the tag. For example, the HTML
code <title>My Page</title> would make the page title “My Page” in
the Web browser in which it is displayed. HTML is interpreted by the
browser, and the application of the tags for formatting the document
depends upon their placement in the page. You will discover the rules
and specifics of HTML tags as you continue through the text.

C h a pt e r 1 — We b D e s i g n B a s i c s — 7
 HTML is case insensitive, so the tag <TiTLE> and the tag <title> will behave
in the same manner. But according to W3C, the HTML tag names should always
be in lowercase letters, so that is the convention you should adopt.
NOTE

1.1.3 Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

Web resources are identified by a Uniform Resource Locator
(URL). This is a pathway that establishes the server and file that the
Web browser is attempting to access on behalf of the user. You can see
a sample breakdown of the pieces of a URL in Figure 1.3. The URL
is entered into the address bar of the Web browser to establish a con-
nection to the specified resource. URLs cannot include blank spaces
(Whenever you see “%20” in a URL, it is the browser attempting to
reconcile a blank space in the path.)

FIGURE 1.3 Example Breakdown of a URL

The individual pieces of the URL

http://www.example.com/files/mypage.html are as follows:
• First, http is the protocol. A protocol is a set of messages
coupled together to transmit information in a way that both
the sender and receiver can understand. The common proto-
cols you may see for Web use are http (used for connecting to
a Web resource), https (the secure version of HTTP), ftp (File
Transfer Protocol, used for uploading and downloading files),
and mailto (used to invoke the default e-mail program).
• Next, the colon (:) separates the protocol from the input com-
mand. The input command is the rest of the URL information
after the colon.

8 — Multimedia Web Design

• The two slashes (//) signify that contact to a server should be
established.
• The next section is the Web server identification (which is also
called the hostname); in this case it is www.example.com. This
specifies a unique Web server to which the Web browser will
submit a resource request. Alternatively, you may see a set of
numbers separated by period characters, such as 128.163.1.1;
this also uniquely identifies a server by its Internet Protocol
(IP) address. The humanly readable text is a convenience for
users that connects to a numerical server address.
• Within the Web server identification, the www signifies the
server that should be listening for a request from the protocol.
The www can be omitted in almost all cases because it will be
assumed by default. Other text may precede the domain name,
representing subdomains (such as videos.example.com, in
which videos is the subdomain).
• The text example.com is the domain name. This is uniquely
bound to a preset folder on a Web server by whoever owns the
domain.
• The text com is the Top-Level Domain (TLD), the top level in
the domain hierarchy; it assists in uniquely identifying server
names. There are only a limited number of these in existence,
though more are being created as the old ones are exhausted.
Common TLD names include com (for commercial use), org
(typically for non-profit organizations), edu (for educational
use), and gov (for government Web sites).
• The rest of the address is used to locate local resources on
the specified Web server. The files portion of the address
represents the file structure (called the file path) beyond the
main folder of the location within the Web server. Multiple
subfolders can be identified as part of the file path (such as
media/videos, in which videos is a subfolder of media and
the media folder resides in the main folder identified for the
Web server identification).
• The final portion of the URL is the filename. In this case, it is
mypage.html. This identifies the specific resource that the
Web browser is requesting from the Web server. Most of these
filenames will be HTML files with an extension of .htm or
.html.

C h a pt e r 1 — We b D e s i g n B a s i c s — 9
 When there is no filename specified, the server will look for either
index.htm or index.html. For this reason, you should always name the
homepage of your site either index.htm or index.html so the server can
NOTE
find it immediately with a reference to the containing folder. This will be reiter-
ated throughout the project planning, but you should make note of it now.

1.2 HTML PAGE CONSTRUCTION

HTML pages are written in text, and they act the same way no
matter which program is used to write them. You will experience
some of the different design tool options in the next chapter, but no
matter which one you choose, the code that results will be the same
format and can be opened in any Web authoring or text processing
program. The simplest program to use when writing HTML is a plain
text editor, like Notepad on Windows or TextEdit for Mac OS. Any
program that saves plain text files (as .txt) can be used to create an
HTML document.

More complex word processing programs, like Microsoft Word, can create
HTML, but their use is not recommended. You must be careful with how you
save your files on these programs to avoid formatting code in your document
NOTE
in a language other than HTML and extraneous code added by the editor. You
should make sure that the Type field of the Save As dialog box says either
“Text” or “Plain Text” before you complete the save operation.

Every HTML page has the same basic structure. It includes an

initial <html> tag to signify that HTML formatting rules should be
applied by the browser; this must be turned off at the end of the page
with an </html> tag to close the document content. Inside the HTML
page are two main parts, the head and the body.

10 — Multimedia Web Design

The recommended text editor to use for HTML creation is Notepad++; it runs on
any operating system and can be downloaded (for free) either as an executable
file or as source files that can be compiled for your specific machine. The benefit
PROFESSIONAL
of this program is that it identifies tags in your document with highlighting after TIP
you have saved the page with an HTML extension (either .htm or .html). It can
also identify code in other programming languages, such as JavaScript and PHP,
which you will use as you start to develop more complex Web pages and Web
sites. Even when you start using design tools for your HTML pages, Notepad++
is a beneficial tool for editing and error-checking HTML and embedded code.
Notepad++ is available from the Web site notepad-plus-plus.org.

The head is signified by the <head> tag and closed by the </head>
tag. This section is used for configuration information and non-dis-
playing elements. The only portion of the head that displays in the
browser is the title. This is where you will place your CSS styles and
interlink external resources as you add complexity to your pages.
The body is signified by the <body> tag, which should be placed after
the closing </head> tag. The body is where all of the content should be
placed that you want to display in the browser window. The body must
also be closed with </body> before you close the HTML tag with </html>.

ACTIVITY 1.2 – CREATING A TEMPLATE PAGE AND

PROJECT FOLDER
For this activity, you will create a folder to house your projects for this textbook ACTIVITY

and create a template file for your HTML pages. First, choose a location on your
computer and create a new folder called “WebProjects” (with no spaces in the
name; you should not include spaces in any folder or filenames used for the Web).
You will create new folders inside of this folder for the activities and projects
throughout this text. Housing everything in the same folder structure will help you
when linking documents together and invoking resources within your pages.
Using the page outline given below, open a text editor and type the page struc-
ture into it, from the <html> tag to the </html> tag. You should save this file as
template.html inside the WebProjects folder. This will allow you to
create a new page by opening this file without the need to retype this structure.
You should follow along with the remaining parts of this chapter to expand your
template file to include the additional elements needed.

C h a pt e r 1 — We b D e s i g n B a s i c s — 11
 The complete structure for an HTML page with the head and body
elements included is as follows:
<html>
<head>

</head>
<body>

</body>
</html>

You can use this as a guide for placing your content and resources.
There are additional elements that are common to all HTML pages
that you will explore in the next few sections. These include the docu-
ment type (doctype) declaration and page title.
1.2.1 The Doctype Declaration
A Doctype Declaration (DTD) is an instruction to the browser spec-
ifying the type of content the browser will encounter in the page. The
need for a DTD is based on the different versions of HTML that can
be used in a page and the widespread inclusion of XML documents on
the Web. A DTD tells the browser how to interpret what follows in the
page.

Some Web browsers are more forgiving of errors than others. For example, Firefox
allows you to open a page that does not include a DTD, but you should never
depend on this forgiveness, as it can cause compatibility issues in other browsers.
NOTE

There are a variety of DTD values that you may encounter, but
the two DTDs you will likely need to use most often are for HTML 5
and HTML 4.01. Eventually, you should construct all of your pages in
HTML 5. The command for a DTD is <!DOCTYPE>; this is in upper
case because it is a browser instruction, not an HTML tag.

12 — Multimedia Web Design

 The DTD you should use for HTML 4.01 is:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transi-
tional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd”>
There are different DTDs for HTML 4.01, but the “loose” specifi-
cation from the example is more forgiving and allows the use of pre-
sentational content and deprecated tags (tags that were once part
of the standard but have been retired). Ideally, you would use the
strict DTD, but it is more difficult to determine errors as a begin-
ner, since the errors may simply be omitted from the browser con-
tent. The words and strings (denoted by quotation marks) following
the word DOCTYPE inside the tag are called attributes; you will
encounter attributes frequently as you expand your understanding
of HTML. Attributes are always separated from the tag name by a
blank space.
The DTD for HTML 5 is simpler, because it is not a derivative of
SGML. The DTD for HTML 5 is as follows:
<!DOCTYPE html>
The DTD tag for a page does not have an end tag like most
HTML tags and does not have to be closed. These tags are also case
insensitive, like other HTML tags, but convention dictates that they
should be capitalized. The page structure with an HTML 5 DTD is
as follows:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>

</head>
<body>

</body>
</html>

C h a pt e r 1 — We b D e s i g n B a s i c s — 13
 ACTIVITY 1.3 – ADDING DTDS TO THE TEMPLATE PAGE
For this activity, you should open template.html in the text editor of your
ACTIVITY choice and add a DTD declaration before the <html> tag. Be sure to save your
file when you are finished.

1.2.2 Adding a Title

The next element that should always be included in an HTML
page is a title. A title is added inside the head using the <title> and
</title> tags. Whatever text is typed between the opening and closing
tags will be treated as the page title by the browser. For instance, to
call a page “My Page Title,” you would use the following code inside
the head of the file:
<title>My Page Title</title>
The complete code for the page with a title included is:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>My Page Title</title>
</head>
<body>

</body>
</html>

ACTIVITY 1.4 – ADDING A TITLE

For this activity, you will add a placeholder for your page title in your tem-
ACTIVITY plate.html file. Make sure you place the <title> and </title> tags within the
head of the HTML document. You can use “My Page Title” as your placeholder
value, but you will need to change this for each page you create. Be sure to
save your file when you are finished.

14 — Multimedia Web Design

1.2.3 Adding Content
The content of your page that you want to display in the main win-
dow of the Web browser is placed inside of the body (between the <body>
and </body> tags). You can type plain text in this area and it will dis-
play in the Web browser window using the default font and format for
the browser. Without any formatting, the text may appear differently
on different browsers. Almost all of your page development will be for
the body of the document, since this is what your audience will see. Only
the title, meta information about the page, JavaScript code and CSS
formatting will be placed inside the head of the document.

ACTIVITY 1.5 – HELLO, WORLD!

One of the first programming activities in any language is to create a program
to print the text “Hello, World!” on the screen. This has become a computing ACTIVITY
tradition that you will continue in this activity. Fortunately, displaying text is very
simple once you have the HTML page structure complete. For this activity, you
should open the template.html file in a text editor and save the file as
hello.html inside the WebProjects folder. Change the title of your
HTML page (the content between <title> and </title>) to the text “Hello, World!”
and add the text “Hello, World!” to the page inside the body of the document
(between the <body> and </body> tags).

1.2.4 Adding a Hyperlink

One of the key features of using hypertext is the ability to link a
document to other resources and documents. To do this, you can cre-
ate a hyperlink (or link) inside your HTML document. The tag that
you will use to create this link is the anchor tag, denoted <a> in HTML.
Link text will (by default) be colored blue and underlined. You can see
an example of linked text compared to regular text in Figure 1.4.
The text between the opening <a> tag and the closing </a> tag
will be the highlighted text that appears in the browser window. For
example, in Figure 1.4, the text between the <a> and </a> tags is
“This is a link.”

C h a pt e r 1 — We b D e s i g n B a s i c s — 15
 FIGURE 1.4 Linked Text

In order to set a destination for the link (the resource to which

the Web browser will connect when the link is clicked by the user),
you must use an attribute inside of the <a> tag. This attribute is
the hyper-reference attribute, abbreviated href. The attribute href
requires a value; this creates what is called an attribute/value pair.
The code for this is:
<a href=”destination”>This is a link.</a>
The text “This is a link.” can be changed to any text. Similarly,
the text “destination” should be replaced with the actual URL of the
resource that is to be accessed. There are two types of URL referencing
that are accepted by the href attribute:
• Global Referencing: This type of reference specifies the com-
plete URL for a resource. For example, you could link to the
Google homepage with the following code:
<a href=”http://www.google.com”>Google HomePage</a>

• Relative Referencing: This type of reference specifies a

resource based on its location relative to the current page. For
example, if you had two pages in the same folder named page1.
html and page2.html, then you could link to page2.html inside
page1.html with the following code:
<a href=”page2.html”>Page 2</a>
You do not have to add any attributes to a closing tag; all of the
attribute/value pairs should be contained in the opening tag.

16 — Multimedia Web Design

 ACTIVITY 1.6 – CREATING A LINK
For this activity, you will enhance the hello.html file to add a link from the word
“World” to the homepage of Google Earth. To hyperlink the word “World” in the ACTIVITY
body of the document, you should first wrap it in the <a> and </a> tags. The
href attribute of the <a> tag should point to the URL www.google.com/
earth using the http protocol. The content of your body should be as follows:
Hello, <a href=”http://www.google.com/earth”>World</a>!
Make sure to save your work when you are finished.

1.2.5 Page Testing

Once you have made changes to an HTML page or created a new
one, it is always a good idea to test it in a Web browser. If you have a
default Web browser set for your computer, the easiest way to test the
document is to double-click the icon inside of the WebProjects folder.
Since the document type is HTML, it will open in a Web browser
instead of a text editor. If you do not have a default Web browser set
for your computer or you wish to test the file in a different browser, you
can right-click the icon and select Open with and choose the browser
you want to use to open the file.

In Firefox, you can select the Firefox menu, choose New Tab, and then
choose Open File to select an HTML file you want to open on your local
computer.
NOTE

The browser will interpret the page content for display and show
it in the browser window. You can see an example of this in Figure 1.5
for the hello.html page you have created through the activities in this
chapter. You should open this file in your own Web browser of choice
to see how the results of your work are interpreted.

C h a pt e r 1 — We b D e s i g n B a s i c s — 17
 FIGURE 1.5 Testing an HTML Page

From the figure, you can see where the different elements of the
page translate in the browser. The title of the page will be located in
the top part of the browser interface. The main browser window is
where the body of the page is displayed. The address bar will display
the URL of the file. In this case, it will begin with file://C:, because
it is using local file access on the C drive of your machine. (A differ-
ent letter may display if you have selected a different default storage
drive.)

1.3 PRINCIPLES OF WEB DESIGN

Now that you have an understanding of the basic mechanics of
constructing and testing a page, you should pause to consider how
you will design and structure your HTML pages individually or for an
entire Web site. When you create pages for the Web, you are creating
a complete visual interface that is more dynamic than print and more
interactive than slides or videos. You need to keep this interactivity in
mind and consider the flow of information through your page. There
are basic principles you should consider for even small projects and

18 — Multimedia Web Design

 individual pages of content. Applying these will ensure that you con-
struct an appealing presentation for your viewers, which is one of the
most critical aspects of creating effective Web pages.
1.3.1 Page Layout and Real Estate
By default, the content of a Web page will display from left to right
in a continuous line until it hits the end of the browser window, at
which point it will continue in the next line down back at the left mar-
gin. There are techniques for dividing up the page into more man-
ageable sections (such as using tables and using positioning style
commands). When you consider where elements should be placed on
your page, you should consider the importance of the location on the
page (commonly called “real estate”) where you will place them.
The upper left-hand corner is considered your most valuable real
estate. This is the portion of the page that the viewer will see first,
which is why it is considered the most valuable. This is also the rea-
son most logos are placed in the upper left-hand corner of a Web page.
Above all, you want your viewer to be able to identify the site and its
ownership on sight. There is no set demarcation for the primary real
estate of a page, but you should not assume it extends further than
25% of the horizontal or vertical space of the page.

According to W3C, the common browser display size is now 1024 pixels by
768 pixels. This means you can plan a site for this size and assume that 98%
of your viewing audience will be able to see the site in a single window without NOTE
scrolling.

The secondary real estate of a page extends in two directions. Any-

thing to the right of the primary real estate is considered secondary
real estate. This is because most viewers will be able to see this space
without scrolling, which makes it second only to the upper left-hand
corner for visibility and accessibility.

C h a pt e r 1 — We b D e s i g n B a s i c s — 19
 The other area of secondary real estate is from the bottom left-
hand corner of the browser window up to the primary real estate.
The entire left-hand side is not considered secondary real estate,
because part of it may not be visible without scrolling. When you
plan your site, you want to make sure any left-hand menu content
does not require the user to scroll down on the page, or they will
likely not see those menu items.

Users will not scroll a page unless they are vested in it by interest in something
it contains. There is almost no possibility of their finding content hidden past
the standard browser size of the page unless it is related directly to content
PROFESSIONAL
TIP presented on the visible part of the page that prompts them to explore further.
You always want to make sure your menu and branding information fit within the
standard browser size, so you do not have to rely on user scrolling and explora-
tion for them to be able to navigate through your site.

The space beyond these two areas is what is typically desig-

nated for the content of the page. This is the tertiary real estate.
In a complete Web site, this is the only area that should be altered
from page to page, in order to establish consistency. Additionally,
you should not require a user to scroll down on the page more than
once (if at all). Users are unlikely to scroll more than once on a
page and remain on the page. You can see a complete breakdown
of these regions of a Web page in Figure 1.6.

FIGURE 1.6 Real Estate of a Web Page

2 0 — Multimedia Web Design

1.3.2 Considering Purpose and Audience
The two most important aspects to consider when creating either a
single page or a complete Web site are the purpose of the site and the
intended audience. These two elements will vary drastically by project,
but establishing them early will prevent you from having to redesign
the site later.
The purpose of your site is something you should be able to sum-
marize in one sentence at most. This should be your key idea behind
every decision later in constructing the site. For a personal site that
advertises your skills and history, the purpose may be “to showcase
your skills and accomplishments in a visually interesting way.” You
can then ask design questions against this core goal. For instance, if
there is an element you are not sure you should include, you can ask,
“Does this element showcase my skills and accomplishments in a visu-
ally interesting way?” If the answer is yes, then it should be kept. If
not, you need to rethink how to integrate that information or whether
to include it at all.
The audience is another essential consideration. You should deter-
mine who will be viewing the site and what impression you want to
give them. For instance, a military site filled with cartoon characters
and bright colors will likely not be taken very seriously. Similarly, a
site intended for children that contains nothing but black text on a
white background will not grab the attention of your audience and
will likely never be viewed again. You have to consider the tone of your
site when deciding how to present your content. Knowing the audi-
ence you wish to address should help to set that tone. The question
you can use to test your design ideas against your audience is “Will
my audience react well to this design element?” According to research
done by the Stanford Web Credibility Project, the professionalism and
coherence of a site are among the most influential factors in a user’s
believing in the credibility of the site and its content.

C h a pt e r 1 — We b D e s i g n B a s i c s — 21
 According to a study by CBS News (cbsnews.com), users spend an average
of 33 seconds on a single Web page. They also form an opinion of the page within
approximately 8 seconds. That means you have approximately 8 seconds to entice
PROFESSIONAL
TIP
them to stay and 33 seconds to interest them in your content. Your design should
be what gives them a favorable impression within the first 8 seconds, and your
content should be what retains them past 33 seconds.

1.3.3 Typography and Font Selection

Typography is the process of arranging letters in a specific
arrangement to make language readable. This was once a specialized
occupation, but with the advent of personal computing, typography is
something in which everyone who types a document participates. The
typeface, size, and spacing of the letters are all contributing factors
in typography; these are all choices that are made in composing any
visual document, including Web pages.
A typeface is a collection of symbols that form an alphabet; each
typeface has its own unique style of display, such as the typefaces
Times New Roman and Arial, two common typefaces installed on most
machines. It is very likely that you will see typeface confused with the
term font (as in the case of CSS), since they are almost synonymous.
A font is actually a combination of a typeface and a size, so 10-point
Arial is a font. With the advent of digital typography, the selection of
a font is typically separate from the sizing, making the choice of type-
face and that of the font virtually indistinguishable.

Typography is the process of arranging letters and punctuation to create

a readable outcome in any document. Most typography is done for artistic
reasons, but readability and clarity should be primary concerns in any
DEFINITION
typography effort.
A typeface is a complete set of keyboard characters in one particular style.
(The style is the name of the typeface.) Most typefaces support standard sizes,
as well as bold and italic variants.

2 2 — Multimedia Web Design

Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
of the Hotels there merely as any English lady of wealth might do—
with nurses and her own maid, of course, but without the
paraphernalia and nuisance of her usual German retinue.
Whilst there she met an old acquaintance of her father’s, a Mr.
Rumboldt, who is a rich financier, it seems, and who at one time
moved in the best society, but whose reputation had greatly suffered
recently, owing to a much talked of divorce case which brought his
name into unenviable notoriety.
Her Serene Highness, with more mopping of her blue eyes,
assured Lady Molly that over at Schloss Starkburg she did not read
the English papers, and was therefore quite unaware that Mr.
Rumboldt, who used to be a persona grata in her father’s house,
was no longer a fit and proper acquaintance for her.
“It was a very fine morning,” she continued with gentle pathos,
“and I was deadly dull at Folkestone. Mr. Rumboldt persuaded me to
go with him on a short trip on his yacht. We were to cross over to
Boulogne, have luncheon there, and come home in the cool of the
evening.”
“And, of course, something occurred to disable the yacht,”
concluded Lady Molly gravely, as the lady herself had paused in her
narrative.
“Of course,” whispered the little Countess through her tears.
“And, of course, it was too late to get back by the ordinary
afternoon mail boat?”
“That boat had gone an hour before, and the next did not leave
until the middle of the night.”
“So you had perforce to wait until then, and in the meanwhile you
were seen by a girl named Jane Turner, who knew you by sight, and
who has been blackmailing you ever since.”
“How did you guess that?” ejaculated Her Highness, with a look of
such comical bewilderment in her large, blue eyes that Lady Molly
and I had perforce to laugh.
“Well,” replied my dear lady after awhile, resuming her gravity, “we
have a way in our profession of putting two and two together, haven’t
we? And in this case it was not very difficult. The assignations for
secret meetings at out-of-the-way railway stations which were
addressed to H. S. H. in the columns of the West of England Times
recently, gave me one clue, shall we say? The mysterious assault on
a young woman, whose home was close to those very railway
stations as well as to Bristol Castle—your parents’ residence—where
you have frequently been staying of late, was another piece that
fitted in the puzzle; whilst the number of copies of the West of
England Times that were found in that same young woman’s room
helped to draw my thoughts to her. Then your visit to me to-day—it is
very simple, you see.”
“I suppose so,” said H. S. H. with a sigh. “Only it is worse even
than you suggest, for that horrid Jane Turner, to whom I had been
ever so kind when I was a girl, took a snapshot of me and Mr.
Rumboldt standing on the steps of the Hôtel des Bains at Boulogne.
I saw her doing it and rushed down the steps to stop her. She talked
quite nicely then—hypocritical wretch!—and said that perhaps the
plate would be no good when it was developed, and if it were she
would destroy it. I was not to worry; she would contrive to let me
know through the agony column of the West of England Times,
which—as I was going home to Bristol Castle to stay with my parents
—I could see every day, but she had no idea I should have minded,
and all that sort of rigmarole. Oh! she is a wicked girl, isn’t she, to
worry me so?”
And once again the lace handkerchief found its way to the most
beautiful pair of blue eyes I think I have ever seen. I could not help
smiling, though I was really very sorry for the silly, emotional, dear
little thing.
“And instead of reassurance in the West of England Times, you
found a demand for a secret meeting at a country railway station?”
“Yes! And when I went there—terrified lest I should be seen—Jane
Turner did not meet me herself. Her mother came and at once talked
of selling the photograph to my husband or to my mother-in-law. She
said it was worth four thousand pounds to Jane, and that she had
advised her daughter not to sell it to me for less.”
“What did you reply?”
“That I hadn’t got four thousand pounds,” said the Countess
ruefully; “so after a lot of argument it was agreed that I was to pay
Jane two hundred and fifty pounds a year out of my dress allowance.
She would keep the negative as security, but promised never to let
anyone see it so long as she got her money regularly. It was also
arranged that whenever I stayed with my parents at Bristol Castle,
Jane would make appointments to meet me through the columns of
the West of England Times, and I was to pay up the instalments then
just as she directed.”
I could have laughed, if the whole thing had not been so tragic, for
truly the way this silly, harmless little woman had allowed herself to
be bullied and blackmailed by a pair of grasping females was beyond
belief.
“And this has been going on for over a year,” commented Lady
Molly gravely.
“Yes, but I never met Jane Turner again: it was always her mother
who came.”
“You knew her mother before that, I presume?”
“Oh, no. I only knew Jane because she had been sewing-maid at
the Castle some few years ago.”
“I see,” said Lady Molly slowly. “What was the woman like whom
you used to meet at the railway stations, and to whom you paid over
Miss Turner’s annuity?”
“Oh, I couldn’t tell you what she was like. I never saw her
properly.”
“Never saw her properly?” ejaculated Lady Molly, and it seemed to
my well-trained ears as if there was a ring of exultation in my dear
lady’s voice.
“No,” replied the little Countess ruefully. “She always appointed a
late hour of the evening, and those little stations on that line are very
badly lighted. I had such difficulties in getting away from home
without exciting comment, and used to beg her to let me meet her at
a more convenient hour. But she always refused.”
Lady Molly remained thoughtful for a while; then she asked
abruptly:
“Why don’t you prosecute Jane Turner for blackmail?”
“Oh, I dare not—I dare not!” ejaculated the little Countess, in
genuine terror. “My husband would never forgive me, and his female
relations would do their best afterwards to widen the breach between
us. It was because of the article in the London newspaper about the
assault on Jane Turner—the talk of a clue and of startling
developments—that I got terrified, and went to Scotland Yard. Oh,
no! no! no! Promise me that my name won’t be dragged into this
case. It would ruin me for ever!”
She was sobbing now; her grief and fear were very pathetic to
witness, and she moaned through her sobs:
“Those wicked people know that I daren’t risk an exposure, and
simply prey upon me like vampires because of that. The last time I
saw the old woman I told her that I would confess everything to my
husband—I couldn’t bear to go on like this. But she only laughed;
she knew I should never dare.”
“When was this?” asked Lady Molly.
“About three weeks ago—just before Jane Turner was assaulted
and robbed of the photographs.”
“How do you know she was robbed of the photographs?”
“She wrote and told me so,” replied the young Countess, who
seemed strangely awed now by my dear lady’s earnest question.
And from a dainty reticule she took a piece of paper, which bore
traces of many bitter tears on its crumpled surface. This she handed
to Lady Molly, who took it from her. It was a type-written letter, which
bore no signature. Lady Molly perused it in silence first, then read its
contents out aloud to me:—

“To H.S.H. the Countess of Hohengebirg.

“You think I have been worrying you the past twelve months
about your adventure with Mr. Rumboldt in Boulogne. But it
was not me; it was one who has power over me, and who
knew about the photograph. He made me act as I did. But
whilst I kept the photo you were safe. Now he has assaulted
me and nearly killed me, and taken the negative away. I can,
and will, get it out of him again, but it will mean a large sum
down. Can you manage one thousand pounds?”

“When did you get this?” asked Lady Molly.

“Only a few days ago,” replied the Countess. “And oh! I have been
enduring agonies of doubt and fear for the past three weeks, for I
had heard nothing from Jane since the assault, and I wondered what
had happened.”
 “You have not sent a reply, I hope.”
“No. I was going to, when I saw the article in the London paper,
and the fear that all had been discovered threw me into such a state
of agony that I came straight up to town and saw the gentleman at
Scotland Yard, who sent me on to you. Oh!” she entreated again and
again, “you won’t do anything that will cause a scandal! Promise me
—promise me! I believe I should commit suicide rather than face it—
and I could find a thousand pounds.”
“I don’t think you need do either,” said Lady Molly. “Now, may I
think over the whole matter quietly to myself,” she added, “and talk it
over with my friend here? I may be able to let you have some good
news shortly.”
She rose, intimating kindly that the interview was over. But it was
by no means that yet, for there was still a good deal of entreaty and
a great many tears on the one part, and reiterated kind assurances
on the other. However when, some ten minutes later, the dainty
clouds of lace and chiffon were finally wafted out of our office, we
both felt that the poor, harmless, unutterably foolish little lady felt
distinctly consoled and more happy than she had been for the past
twelve months.
 4

“Yes! she has been an utter little goose,” Lady Molly was saying to
me an hour later when we were having luncheon; “but that Jane
Turner is a remarkably clever girl.”
“I suppose you think, as I do, that the mysterious elderly female,
who seems to have impersonated the mother all through, was an
accomplice of Jane Turner’s, and that the assault was a put-up job
between them,” I said. “Inspector Danvers will be delighted—for this
theory is a near approach to his own.”
“H’m!” was all the comment vouchsafed on my remark.
“I am sure it was Arthur Cutbush, the girl’s sweetheart, after all,” I
retorted hotly, “and you’ll see that, put to the test of sworn evidence,
his alibi at the time of the assault itself won’t hold good. Moreover,
now,” I added triumphantly, “we have knowledge
 “Ten minutes later the dainty clouds of lace and chiffon were finally
wafted out”

which has been lacking all along—the motive.”

“Ah!” said my lady, smiling at my enthusiasm, “that’s how you
argue, Mary, is it?”
“Yes, and in my opinion the only question in doubt is whether
Arthur Cutbush acted in collusion with Jane Turner or against her.”
“Well, suppose we go and elucidate that point—and some others
—at once,” concluded Lady Molly as she rose from the table.
She decided to return to Bristol that same evening. We were going
by the 8.50 p.m., and I was just getting ready—the cab being already
at the door—when I was somewhat startled by the sudden
appearance into my room of an old lady, very beautifully dressed,
with snow-white hair dressed high above a severe, interesting face.
 A merry, rippling laugh issuing from the wrinkled mouth, and a
closer scrutiny on my part, soon revealed the identity of my dear
lady, dressed up to look like an extremely dignified grande dame of
the old school, whilst a pair of long, old-fashioned earrings gave a
curious, foreign look to her whole appearance.
I didn’t quite see why she chose to arrive at the Grand Hotel,
Bristol, in that particular disguise, nor why she entered our names in
the hotel book as Grand Duchess and Princess Amalie von
Starkburg, from Germany; nor did she tell me anything that evening.
But by the next afternoon, when we drove out together in a fly, I
was well up in the rôle which I had to play. My lady had made me
dress in a very rich black silk dress of her own, and ordered me to do
my hair in a somewhat frumpish fashion, with a parting, and a “bun”
at the back. She herself looked more like Royalty travelling incognito
than ever, and no wonder small children and tradesmen’s boys
stared open-mouthed when we alighted from our fly outside one of
the mean-looking little houses in Bread Street.
In answer to our ring, a smutty little servant opened the door, and
my lady asked her if Miss Jane Turner lived here and if she were in.
“Yes, Miss Turner lives here, and it bein’ Thursday and early
closin’ she’s home from business.”
“Then please tell her,” said Lady Molly in her grandest manner,
“that the Dowager Grand Duchess of Starkburg-Nauheim and the
Princess Amalie desire to see her.”
The poor little maid nearly fell backwards with astonishment. She
gasped an agitated “Lor!” and then flew down the narrow passage
and up the steep staircase, closely followed by my dear lady and
myself.
On the first-floor landing the girl, with nervous haste, knocked at a
door, opened it and muttered half audibly:
“Ladies to see you, miss!”
Then she fled incontinently upstairs. I have never been able to
decide whether that little girl thought that we were lunatics, ghosts,
or criminals.
But already Lady Molly had sailed into the room, where Miss Jane
Turner apparently had been sitting reading a novel. She jumped up
when we entered, and stared open-eyed at the gorgeous
apparitions. She was not a bad-looking girl but for the provoking,
bold look in her black eyes, and the general slatternly appearance of
her person.
“Pray do not disturb yourself, Miss Turner,” said Lady Molly in
broken English, as she sank into a chair, and beckoned me to do
likewise. “Pray sit down—I vill be brief. You have a compromising
photograph—is it not?—of my daughter-in-law ze Countess of
Hohengebirg. I am ze Grand Duchess of Starkburg-Nauheim—zis is
my daughter, ze Princess Amalie. We are here incognito. You
understand? Not?”
And, with inimitable elegance of gesture, my dear lady raised a
pair of “starers” to her eyes and fixed them on Jane Turner’s quaking
figure.
Never had I seen suspicion, nay terror, depicted so plainly on a
young face, but I will do the girl the justice to state that she pulled
herself together with marvellous strength of will.
She fought down her awed respect of this great lady; or rather
shall I say that the British middle-class want of respect for social
superiority, especially if it be foreign, now stood her in good stead?
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” she said with an
arrogant toss of the head.
“Zat is a lie, is it not?” rejoined Lady Molly calmly, as she drew
from her reticule the typewritten letter which Jane Turner had sent to
the Countess of Hohengebirg. “Zis you wrote to my daughter-in-law;
ze letter reached me instead of her. It interests me much. I vill give
you two tousend pounds for ze photograph of her and Mr.—er—
Rumboldt. You vill sell it to me for zat, is it not?”
The production of the letter had somewhat cowed Jane’s bold
spirit. But she was still defiant.
“I haven’t got the photograph here,” she said.
“Ah, no! but you vill get it—yes?” said my lady, quietly replacing
the letter in her reticule. “In ze letter you offer to get it for tousend
pound. I vill give you two tousend. To-day is a holiday for you. You
vill get ze photograph from ze gentleman—not? And I vill vait here till
you come back.”
Whereupon she rearranged her skirts round her and folded her
hands placidly, like one prepared to wait.
 “I haven’t got the photograph,” said Jane Turner, doggedly, “and I
can’t get it to-day. The—the person who has it doesn’t live in Bristol.”
“No? Ah! but quite close, isn’t it?” rejoined my lady, placidly. “I can
vait all ze day.”
“No, you shan’t!” retorted Jane Turner, whose voice now shook
with obvious rage or fear—I knew not which. “I can’t get the
photograph to-day—so there! And I won’t sell it to you—I won’t. I
don’t want your two thousand pounds. How do I know you are not an
impostor?”
“From zis, my good girl,” said Lady Molly, quietly; “that if I leave zis
room wizout ze photograph, I go straight to ze police with zis letter,
and you shall be prosecuted by ze Grand Duke, my son, for
blackmailing his wife. You see, I am not like my daughter-in-law; I am
not afraid of a scandal. So you vill fetch ze photograph—isn’t it? I
and ze Princess Amalie vill vait for it here. Zat is your bedroom—
not?” she added, pointing to a door which obviously gave on an inner
room. “Vill you put on your hat and go at once, please? Two tousend
pound or two years in prison—you have ze choice—isn’t it?”
Jane Turner tried to keep up her air of defiance, looking Lady
Molly full in the face; but I who watched her could see the boldness
in her eyes gradually giving place to fear, and then to terror and even
despair; the girl’s face seemed literally to grow old as I looked at it—
pale, haggard, and drawn—whilst Lady Molly kept her stern,
luminous eyes fixed steadily upon her.
Then, with a curious, wild gesture, which somehow filled me with a
nameless fear, Jane Turner turned on her heel and ran into the inner
room.
There followed a moment of silence. To me it was tense and
agonising. I was straining my ears to hear what was going on in that
inner room. That my dear lady was not as callous as she wished to
appear was shown by the strange look of expectancy in her beautiful
eyes.
The minutes sped on—how many I could not afterwards have
said. I was conscious of a clock ticking monotonously over the
shabby mantelpiece, of an errand boy outside shouting at the top of
his voice, of the measured step of the cab horse which had brought
us hither being walked up and down the street.
 Then suddenly there was a violent crash, as of heavy furniture
being thrown down. I could not suppress a scream, for my nerves by
now were terribly on the jar.
“Quick, Mary—the inner room!” said Lady Molly. “I thought the girl
might do that.”
I dared not pause in order to ask what “that” meant, but flew to the
door.
It was locked.
“Downstairs—quick!” commanded my lady. “I ordered Danvers to
be on the watch outside.”
You may imagine how I flew, and how I blessed my dear lady’s
forethought in the midst of her daring plan, when, having literally torn
open the front door, I saw Inspector Danvers in plain clothes, calmly
patrolling the street. I beckoned to him—he was keeping a sharp
look-out—and together we ran back into the house.
Fortunately, the landlady and the servant were busy in the
basement, and had neither heard the crash nor seen me run in
search of Danvers. My dear lady was still alone in the dingy parlour,
stooping against the door of the inner room, her ear glued to the key-
hole.
“Not too late, I think,” she whispered hurriedly. “Break it open,
Danvers.”
Danvers, who is a great, strong man, soon put his shoulder to the
rickety door, which yielded to the first blow.
The sight which greeted us filled me with horror, for I had never
seen such a tragedy before. The wretched girl, Jane Turner, had tied
a rope to a ring in the ceiling, which I suppose at one time held a
hanging lamp; the other end of that rope she had formed into a slip-
noose, and passed round her neck.
She had apparently climbed on to a table, and then used her best
efforts to end her life by kicking the table away from under her. This
was the crash which we had heard, and which had caused us to
come to her rescue. Fortunately, her feet had caught in the back of a
chair close by; the slip-noose was strangling her, and her face was
awful to behold, but she was not dead.
Danvers soon got her down. He is a first-aid man, and has done
these terrible jobs before. As soon as the girl had partially recovered,
Lady Molly sent him and me out of the room. In the dark and dusty
parlour, where but a few moments ago I had played my small part in
a grim comedy, I now waited to hear what the sequel to it would be.
Danvers had been gone some time, and the shades of evening
were drawing in; outside, the mean-looking street looked particularly
dreary. It was close on six o’clock when at last I heard the welcome
rustle of silks, the opening of a door, and at last my dear lady—
looking grave but serene—came out of the inner room, and,
beckoning to me, without a word led the way out of the house and
into the fly, which was still waiting at the door.
“We’ll send a doctor to her,” were her first words as soon as we
were clear of Bread Street. “But she is quite all right now, save that
she wants a sleeping draught. Well, she has been punished enough,
I think. She won’t try her hand at blackmailing again.”
“Then the photograph never existed?” I asked amazed.
“No; the plate was a failure, but Jane Turner would not thus readily
give up the idea of getting money out of the poor, pusillanimous
Countess. We know how she succeeded in terrorising that silly little
woman. It is wonderful how cleverly a girl like that worked out such a
complicated scheme, all alone.”
“All alone?”
“Yes; there was no one else. She was the elderly woman who
used to meet the Countess, and who rang at the front door of the
Weston apartment-house. She arranged the whole of the mise en
scène of the assault on herself, all alone, and took everybody in with
it—it was so perfectly done. She planned and executed it
 “ ‘Not too late, I think,’ she whispered hurriedly. ‘Break it open, Danvers’ ”

because she was afraid that the little Countess would be goaded into
confessing her folly to her husband, or to her own parents, when a
prosecution for blackmail would inevitably follow. So she risked
everything on a big coup, and almost succeeded in getting a
thousand pounds from Her Serene Highness, meaning to reassure
her, as soon as she had the money, by the statement that the
negative and prints had been destroyed. But the appearance of the
Grand Duchess of Starkburg-Nauheim this afternoon frightened her
into an act of despair. Confronted with the prosecution she dreaded
and with the prison she dared not face, she, in a mad moment,
attempted to take her life.”
“I suppose now the whole matter will be hushed up.”
 “Yes,” replied Lady Molly with a wistful sigh. “The public will never
know who assaulted Jane Turner.”
She was naturally a little regretful at that. But it was a joy to see
her the day when she was able to assure Her Serene Highness the
Countess of Hohengebirg that she need never again fear the
consequences of that fatal day’s folly.
 VI.
A CASTLE IN BRITTANY

Yes! we are just back from our holiday, my dear lady and I—a well-
earned holiday, I can tell you that.
We went to Porhoët, you know—a dear little village in the
hinterland of Brittany, not very far from the coast; an enchanting
spot, hidden away in a valley, bordered by a mountain stream, wild,
romantic, picturesque—Brittany, in fact.
We had discovered the little place quite accidentally last year, in
the course of our wanderings, and stayed there then about three
weeks, laying the foundations of that strange adventure which
reached its culminating point just a month ago.
I don’t know if the story will interest you, for Lady Molly’s share in
the adventure was purely a private one and had nothing whatever to
do with her professional work. At the same time it illustrates in a very
marked manner that extraordinary faculty which she possesses of
divining her fellow-creatures’ motives and intentions.
We had rooms and pension in the dear little convent on the
outskirts of the village, close to the quaint church and the
picturesque presbytery, and soon we made the acquaintance of the
Curé, a simple-minded, kindly old man, whose sorrow at the thought
that two such charming English ladies as Lady Molly and myself
should be heretics was more than counterbalanced by his delight in
having someone of the “great outside world”—as he called it—to talk
to, whilst he told us quite ingenuously something of his own simple
life, of this village which he loved, and also of his parishioners.
One personality among the latter occupied his thoughts and
conversation a great deal, and I must say interested us keenly. It
was that of Miss Angela de Genneville, who owned the magnificent
château of Porhoët, one of the seven wonders of architectural
France. She was an Englishwoman by birth—being of a Jersey
family—and was immensely wealthy, her uncle, who was also her
godfather, having bequeathed to her the largest cigar factory in St.
Heliers, besides three-quarters of a million sterling.
To say that Miss de Genneville was eccentric was but to put it
mildly; in the village she was generally thought to be quite mad. The
Curé vaguely hinted that a tragic love story was at the bottom of all
her eccentricities. Certain it is that, for no apparent reason, and
when she was still a youngish woman, she had sold the Jersey
business and realised the whole of her fortune. After two years of
continuous travelling, she came to Brittany on a visit to her sister—
the widowed Marquise de Terhoven, who owned a small property
close to Porhoët, and lived there in retirement and poverty with her
only son, Amédé.
Miss Angela de Genneville was agreeably taken with the beauty
and quietude of this remote little village. The beautiful château of
Porhoët being for sale at the time, she bought it, took out letters of
naturalisation, became a French subject, and from that moment
never went outside the precincts of her newly acquired domain.
She never returned to England, and, with the exception of the
Curé and her own sister and nephew, saw no one beyond her small
retinue of servants.
But the dear old Curé thought all the world of her, for she was
supremely charitable to him and to the poor, and scarcely a day
passed but he told us something either of her kindness or of her
eccentric ways. One day he arrived at the convent at an
unaccustomed hour; we had just finished our simple déjeuner of
steaming coffee and rolls when we saw him coming towards us
across the garden.
That he was excited and perturbed was at once apparent by his
hurried gait and by the flush on his kindly face. He bade us a very
hasty “Good morning, my daughters!” and plunged abruptly into his
subject. He explained with great volubility, which was intended to
mask his agitation, that he was the bearer of an invitation to the
charming English lady—a curious invitation, ah, yes! perhaps!—
Mademoiselle de Genneville—very eccentric—but she is in great
trouble—in very serious trouble—and very ill too, now—poor lady—
half paralysed and feeble—yes, feeble in the brain—and then her
nephew, the Marquis Amédé de Terhoven—such a misguided young
man—has got into bad company in that den of wickedness called
Paris—since then it has been debts—always debts—his mother is so
indulgent!—too indulgent! but an only son!—the charming English
ladies would understand. It was very sad—very, very sad—and no
wonder Mademoiselle de Genneville was very angry. She had paid
Monsieur le Marquis’ debts once, twice, three times—but now she
will not pay any more—but she is in great trouble and wants a friend
—a female friend, one of her own country, she declares—for he
himself, alas! was only a poor curé de village, and did not
understand great ladies and their curious ways. It would be true
Christian charity if the charming English lady would come and see
Mademoiselle.
“But her own sister, the Marquise?” suggested Lady Molly,
breaking in on the old man’s volubility.
“Ah! her sister, of course,” he replied with a sigh. “Madame la
Marquise—but then she is Monsieur le Marquis’ mother, and the
charming English lady would understand—a mother’s heart, of
course——”
“But I am a complete stranger to Miss de Genneville,” protested
Lady Molly.
“Ah, but Mademoiselle has always remained an Englishwoman at
heart,” replied the Curé. “She said to me to-day: ‘I seem to long for
an Englishwoman’s handshake, a sober-minded, sensible
Englishwoman, to help me in this difficulty. Bring your English friend
to me, Monsieur le Curé, if she will come to the assistance of an old
woman who has no one to turn to in her distress.’ ”
Of course, after that I knew that my dear lady would yield.
Moreover, she was keenly interested in Miss de Genneville, and
without further discussion she told Monsieur le Curé that she was
quite ready to accompany him to the château of Porhoët.
 2

Of course, I was not present at the interview, but Lady Molly has so
often told me all that happened and how it happened, and with such
a wealth of picturesque and minute detail, that sometimes I find it
difficult to realise that I myself was not there in person.
It seems that Monsieur le Curé himself ushered my lady into the
presence of Miss Angela de Genneville. The old lady was not alone
when they entered; Madame la Marquise de Terhoven, an elderly,
somewhat florid woman, whose features, though distinctly coarse,
recalled those of her sister, sat on a high-backed chair close to a
table, on which her fingers were nervously drumming a tattoo, whilst
in the window embrasure stood a young man whose resemblance to
both the ladies at once proclaimed him to Lady Molly’s quick
perception as the son of the one and nephew of the other—the
Marquis de Terhoven, in fact.
Miss de Genneville sat erect in a huge armchair; her face was the
hue of yellow wax, the flesh literally shrivelled on the bones, the eyes
of a curious, unnatural brilliance; one hand clutched feverishly the
arm of her chair, the other, totally paralysed, lay limp and inert on her
lap.
“Ah! the Englishwoman at last, thank God!” she said in a high-
pitched, strident voice as soon as Lady Molly entered the room.
“Come here, my dear, for I have wanted one of your kind badly. A
true-hearted Englishwoman is the finest product of God’s earth, after
all’s said and done. Pardieu! but I breathe again,” she added, as my
dear lady advanced somewhat diffidently to greet her, and took the
trembling hand which Miss Angela extended to her.
“Sit down close to me,” commanded the eccentric old lady, whilst
Lady Molly, confused, and not a little angered at finding herself in the
very midst of what was obviously a family conclave, was vaguely
wondering how soon she could slip away again. But the trembling
hand of the paralytic clutched her own slender wrist so tightly, forcing
her to sink into a low chair close by, and holding her there as with a
grip of steel, that it would have been useless and perhaps cruel to
resist.
Satisfied now that her newly found friend, as well as Monsieur le
Curé, were prepared to remain by her and to listen to what she had
to say, the sick woman turned with a look of violent wrath towards
the window embrasure.
“I was just telling that fine nephew of mine that he is counting his
chickens before they are hatched. I am not yet dead, as Monsieur
my nephew can see; and I have made a will—aye, and placed it
where his thievish fingers can never reach it.”
The young man, who up to now had been gazing stolidly out of the
window, now suddenly turned on his heel, confronting the old
woman, with a look of hate gleaming in his eyes.
“We can fight the will,” here interposed Madame la Marquise, icily.
“On what grounds?” queried the other.
“That you were paralysed and imbecile when you made it,” replied
the Marquise, dryly.
Monsieur le Curé, who up to now had been fidgeting nervously
with his hat, now raised his hands and eyes up to the ceiling to
emphasise the horror which he felt at this callous suggestion. Lady
Molly no longer desired to go; the half-paralysed grip on her wrist
had relaxed, but she sat there quietly, interested with every fibre of
her quick intelligence in the moving drama which was being unfolded
before her.
There was a pause now, a silence broken only by the monotonous
ticking of a monumental, curious-looking clock which stood in an
angle of the room. Miss de Genneville had made no reply to her
sister’s cruel taunt, but a look, furtive, maniacal, almost dangerous,
now crept into her eyes.
 “Confronting the old woman, with a look of hate gleaming in his eyes”

Then she addressed the Curé.

“I pray you pen, ink and paper—here, on this table,” she
requested. Then as he complied with alacrity, she once more turned
to her nephew, and pointing to the writing materials:
“Sit down and write, Amédé,” she commanded.
“Write what?” he queried.
“A confession, my nephew,” said the old woman, with a shrill
laugh. “A confession of those little peccadilloes of yours, which,
unless I come to your rescue now, will land you for seven years in a
penal settlement, if I mistake not. Eh, my fine nephew?”
“A confession?” retorted Amédé de Terhoven savagely. “Do you
take me for a fool?”
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